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Author Topic: "If only we had more funding..."  (Read 600 times)

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Offline xykotik

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"If only we had more funding..."
« on: September 12, 2011, 10:30:35 PM »
That is what I read between the lines of this article about some of the latest extra-solar planets to be discovered, some with a predicted mass of 1.25 earths in the goldilocks zone.

Quote
ESO's Markus Kissler-Patig said the discovery of HD 85512 b could be one of the first entries in "a good catalog of habitables" marked for further study. Kissler-Patig is the project scientist for the ESO's European Extremely Large Telescope, or E-ELT, which is slated to be built over the next decade at a cost of 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion).

HD 85512 b "is in the zone where we can directly image it," Kissler-Patig said, and that means astronomers could theoretically analyze its atmosphere for the signatures of life, such as the presence of oxygen, methane and water vapor.


How did I beat Pat to this one?
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Facit solem suum oriri super bonos et malos et pluit super iustos et iniustos.

Springtime in Seattle...  March comes in like a lion and out like a wet lion.

Offline Downlinerz2

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Re: "If only we had more funding..."
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2011, 11:17:00 PM »
    It is amazing how rapidly they started to find these ES-planets after the first one :shock: 8-). I used to keep a card file on them and it was easy at the beginning but I gave up when there were new ones so frequently.  Won't be long before the new space telescopes may allow imaging of some of these planets...maybe.
ADDED: (pushed wrong button) :oops:  I used to love pointing my telescopes at the stars where these planets were being found and imagine what might be there.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2011, 11:18:44 PM by Downlinerz2 »
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Offline xykotik

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Re: "If only we had more funding..."
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2011, 11:39:32 PM »
Quote from: Downlinerz2 on September 12, 2011, 11:17:00 PM
   It is amazing how rapidly they started to find these ES-planets after the first one :shock: 8-). I used to keep a card file on them and it was easy at the beginning but I gave up when there were new ones so frequently...

The quip that stands out in my mind was a few years ago when they were up to something like 90.  On The Science Channel, or Discovery, or one of the channels where they do a decent job of producing a stream of popular science and astronomy shows with the same cast of characters from publishing academia.  I can't remember who said it, but it was "...they were coming in so fast, we were like Lucy stuffing chocolates in our mouth just to keep up."

I got a kick out of the fact that their convention was in Wyoming, not LV or somewhere glamorous.  But we're talking committed nerds here, and any light-pollution map will show you that Wyoming is about the darkest spot in the USA.  Our evenings in Yellowstone this summer support that anyway.
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Facit solem suum oriri super bonos et malos et pluit super iustos et iniustos.

Springtime in Seattle...  March comes in like a lion and out like a wet lion.

Offline Downlinerz2

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Re: "If only we had more funding..."
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2011, 11:17:26 AM »
   Here is an small article on one extra-solar planet that is not so habitable :shock:!

    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/corot2a_photo.html
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